AKS: Azure Kubernetes Service
The industrial use-case...
Back in the days, when Kubernetes imprinted its name in the freshest rising technologies. Multiple cloud computing companies like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure have inbuilt this service into their menu. This has abridged the self-management headache to the users and also has affixed to their pockets. Even the cloud companies have marked a value for the same. The same is provided by Microsoft Azure known as AKS
Know Kubernetes
Kubernetes is by far the most popular container orchestration tool. It allows developers and engineers to manage containerized workloads and services through both declarative configuration and automation. Basic benefits of Kubernetes include:
- Run distributed systems resiliently
- Automatically mount a storage system
- Automated rollouts and rollbacks
- Self-healing
- Secret and configuration management
Some Kubernetes terms
API Server: Exposes the underlying Kubernetes API. This is how various management tools interact with the Kubernetes cluster
Controller Manager: Watches the state of the cluster through the API server and when necessary makes changes attempting to move the current state towards the desired state.
Etcd: Highly available key-value store which maintains the Kubernetes cluster .
Scheduler: Schedules unassigned pods to nodes. Determines the most optimal node run your pod
Node: A physical or virtual machine which is where Kubernetes runs your containers.
Kube-proxy: A network proxy that proxies requests to Kubernetes services and their backend pods
Pods: One or more containers logically grouped together. Usually, they need to share the same resources.
Kublet: Agent that processes orchestration requests and handles starting pods that have been assigned to its node by the scheduler
Azure Kubernetes Services
Microsoft Azure is a flexible and versatile cloud platform for enterprises and Kubernetes is becoming the standard way to manage application containers in production. With the help of Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), these two solutions come together, allowing users to quickly and easily create fully-managed Kubernetes clusters
Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is a fully-managed service that allows you to run Kubernetes in Azure without having to manage your own Kubernetes clusters. Azure manages all the complex parts of running Kubernetes, and you can focus on your containers.
Benefits of AKS:
Containers help to move applications and their dependencies between environments, and Kubernetes does its job best as it orchestrates containerization, effectively. Azure Kubernetes Service is considered to be the best way to simplify and streamline Kubernetes and hence, you are able to scale your application development effectively, with great agility.
- Accelerated Application Development
- Supports Agile Project Management
- Security and Compliance
- Ease of Application and Efficient Resource Utilization
- Faster End-to-end Development and Integration
- Removes Complexities and Reduces Expenditure
- Using only the Resources needed
Growing Trend of AKS
The growing trend can be visualised through the following graph which tells how AKS has stepped deep into the market.
Integration of Fortanix And AKS
Fortanix is a data-first multicloud security company. With Fortanix, organizations gain the freedom to accelerate their digital transformation, combine and analyze private data, and deliver secure applications that protect the privacy of the people they serve.
Fortanix’s headquarters is located in Mountain View, California. Fortanix generates $276.4K in revenue per employee Fortanix’s latest funding round was a Series B for $23M on Nov 2018. Fortanix’s main competitors are Twistlock, Aqua and Veracode.
Fortanix Confidential Computing Manager integrates with Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Services (AKS) platform to create, manage, and secure confidential containers on Microsoft Azure confidential computing infrastructure.
Word : We are pleased to see Fortanix integrating with Microsoft Azure Kubernetes Service to convert and manage confidential containers. This new capability makes it simple and fast for developers to quickly secure data in use for sensitive containerized applications.
— Vikas Bhatia, Head of Product, Azure Confidential Computing, Microsoft
Managed Kubernetes services like AKS allow developers to focus on developing their applications’ logic and offload all other infrastructure requirements such as scaling, upgrade, and visibility to the platform by simply writing configuration files.
Combining managed Kubernetes services with technology such as service mesh can attach additional infrastructure logic for request routing, alerting, and service discovery as a side-car proxy to the applications. Similarly, with confidential containers, developers get additional confidentiality and security right out of the box for their applications.
